‘Canadian Idol’ back for new season
TORONTO — Call your voice coach, prep your rain gear and start practising — Canadian Idol is coming back next summer looking for Ryan Malcolm’s successor.
Auditions for CTV’s Idol series have been scheduled for nine cities, which will be revealed on World Idol on Dec. 25 (CTV, 8-10 p.m.). They will likely begin in the spring.
Quibblers Farley Flex, Jake Gold, Sass Jordan and Zack Werner have all agreed to return to judge the talent hopefuls.
As well, Ben Mulroney will return to host the popular series, which broke numerous ratings records.
The process will be the same: the judges will troll the audition cities looking to bring talent back to Toronto for the competition. The competitors will rely on TV viewer votes to proceed to the next level of competition. At stake for the competitors is a recording contract and instant stardom.
The news of a second season wasn’t much of a surprise. Similar to the American and British series, the show was a huge ratings draw during a typically lean summer TV schedule.
“Canadian Idol was such a success. It became a bigger event than the TV show itself,” said Susanne Boyce, president of programming at CTV, from London where Malcolm and the Canadian contingent are making final preparations for the upcoming international special World Idol.
Starting in Winnipeg on a chilly April day, season one of Canadian Idol attracted 16,000 young hopefuls during a six-week-long audition tour to seven cities.
And once the series began airing in June, millions tuned in on a weekly basis to watch the karaoke-style show. Millions more cast votes for their favourite singers.
The September finale saw an average of three million viewers, making it the highest rated episode of the 26-part series.
By bringing the audition to nine cities instead of seven, Boyce said CTV expects next summer’s show to be more popular than the first.
“We’re expecting a bigger turnout because with the first season people weren’t sure what to expect,” she said. “People now know clearly what it is.”
She said the series showcased the country’s love for music.
“We’ve got such a musical history . . . music is deep within us and so is comedy,” she said.
Advertisers have also been lining up hoping to cash in on pool of loyal weekly viewers, said Boyce.
“There’ve been people asking to come back, wanting to be part of the show,” she said.
The deadline for last year’s sponsors, including L’Oreal, to renew is Wednesday.
Since his victory four months ago, Malcolm has become a bona fide celebrity, shaking hands and signing autographs everywhere he goes. He’s hobnobbed at political functions with Prime Minister Paul Martin and U2 singer Bono, delivered the national anthem at the Grey Cup, and released a CD.
He’s currently in London preparing for World Idol, which pits 11 Idol winners from around the globe against each other. It will air in two parts on CTV: a performance special on Dec. 25 from 8-10 p.m. ET and a one-hour results show Jan 1 from 9-10 p.m. ET.
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